Tilting at windmills.

• Author: Peters, Charles
• Position: Presidential election

What worries me about Obama I

Why didn't Barack Obama mention the military option in his otherwise eloquent call to service at Wesleyan? Why didn't he show respect for the people of West Virginia and Kentucky by doing more than token campaigning there? These are troubling questions for an Obama supporter like me. I hate to contemplate the reaction of those less sympathetic to his cause. His San Francisco side could still cost him the election.

What worries me about Obama II

To Hillary's credit, it must be said that she won most of the debates on style, if not on substance. Her presentation was more vigorous and fluent than Obama's, whose victories on substance were often weakened by too many 'uh's' and too little energy. He should have learned to do better after twenty debates, and be eager to challenge McCain to a debate. What he should insist on is freedom from network showoffs as interrogators, and on questions being asked by the candidates of one another. Because Obama and McCain need to appeal to moderates, this would ensure both would want to seem fair in their questioning.

Department of pure coincidence

Who arranged the National Press Club appearance by Reverend Wright that became such a headache for Barack Obama? Was it a matter of chance, or was there mischief afoot? Errol Louis of the New York Daily News was sufficiently curious to discover the answer. It was Barbara Reynolds, who used to work for USA Today, is an ordained minister, and runs the Reynolds News Service. She was also, notes Louis, an "enthusiastic Hillary Clinton supporter."

Aural sex appeal

Do you find it increasingly difficult to make yourself heard in restaurants? We have friends who like to discover the hottest, hippest new places to dine. Having entered the evening looking forward to good conversation with old pals, we find ourselves unable to make out more than a word or two of what our friends are saying.

The effect is just like watching the moving lips of actors in the old silent films--only in this case, not accompanied by silence, but by deafening noise.

I am indebted to Tom Sietsema of the Washington Post Magazine for letting me in on the secret behind this miserable phenomenon: It seems that restaurant owners believe that loud music makes customers feel young and lively, a kind of aural Viagra. Actually, all it does for me is make me feel old and deaf.

Obama: doing it right

My son Chris is both an evangelical and a fervent Obama fan. He thinks Obama can gain a significant share of the evangelical vote if he overcomes the liberal distaste for wearing religion on one's sleeve and instead reaches out to the right people and uses the right words. Not so incidentally, repeatedly declaring his Christian faith would also reassure those who think he is a Muslim. Obama showed he understands the right people point by inviting to a post-nomination-clinching meeting the evangelicals who are most likely to sym pathize with his cause, and are least afraid of the right-wing lunatics in the evangelical movement. As for the right words, Obama began his Father's Day's address at the Apostolic Church of God, "You are blessed to worship in a house built on the rock of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior." My son says those words, used together, signal to evangelicals that you share the essence of their faith.

Cotton Mather would be proud

We may not have the Salem witch trials today, but federal prosecutors in the District of Columbia are trying hard to rise to the challenge. In the course of prosecuting a local madam, they have managed to wreck the lives of several of her former sex workers who had subsequently gone straight. One had become an officer in the U.S. Navy. Another had earned her Ph.D. and is now a sixty-three-year-old retiree.

The prosecutors should be named, because they belong in some hall of infamy for obsessive inquisitors. They are Daniel Butler and Catherine Connelly.

Here is a sampling of the questions that they found appropriate, according to Dana Milbank of the Washington Post:

Butler asked the Navy officer about her experience with one client: "What happened?"

Officer: "Sex."

Butler: "What type of sex?"

Officer: "Sometimes it was oral sex, usually it was normal."

Butler: "What's normal sex?"

After a few more questions like that, even the judge had had enough, and he excused the officer. The judge must have felt guilty because, when the officer later returned to the stand, she was so obviously stricken that the judge said, "Take two deep breaths and relax," and then assured her, "Everything is going to be okay."

He should tell that to the Navy, which has already removed her from her post.

As for prosecutor Connelly, here's what she regarded as an acceptable line of questioning for the sixty-three-year-old:

Connelly: "What happened when you went in the shower?"

Sixty-three-year-old: "I was having sex."

Connelly: "What would happen if you were menstruating?"

I used to be a lawyer, and speculated about what the relevance could possibly have been for that question. The answer is: none.

The trial has already led to two suicides: the alleged madam, Deborah Jane Palfrey, who had been sentenced to four to six years in prison; and a former employee, who hanged herself before the trial. The prosecutors will be lucky if there are not more suicides by the women whose lives they have ruined. By the way, none of the prominent male customers, like Senator David Vitter, were required to testify.

Obama: doing it wrong

Last December...